Jeffrey Foucault - Ghost Repeater

Jeffrey Foucault could easily make a record by himself that would absolutely slay anyone that listens to it. His lyrics are so sweetly precise that they can give you chills or make you sweat, depending on where you are when you're listening.

On Ghost Repeater, however, with Bo Ramsey producing and Kris Delmhorst on backing vocals, among other great players, Foucault leaves his listeners with no room to complain.

Ghost Repeater starts out with the a small town readying for Christmas, and quickly moves into lamentations about loneliness, hope, love, and the secret lives we live in our dreams.

Foucault is a Dylanesque poet, whose songs can seem like nonsense if you're not listening closely enough. He so quickly moves from image to image that a haphazard listener can easily get lost.

Ghost Repeater, though, is full of great stories. You feel as though you've fallen into a different world, where lyrics liken themselves to the words of great poets, and the melody almost passes for something you've heard before.

Jeffrey Foucault's prior work has been more about sadder moments, whereas Ghost Repeater sounds more hopeful. The love songs are about everyday things like marriage ("One for Sorrow"), friendship ("Tall Grass in Old Virginny"), and how it feels to be stuck alone in a Mexican bar in the desert when your lover is somewhere back home ("Mesa, Arizona").

The backup players that join Foucault on this album range from great songwriters in their own right (Kris Delmhorst) to folk-blues guitar legends (Bo Ramsey, who also produces), to just plain incredible players (Chris Heywood).

There are so many wonderful things about this record – from the way Foucault sings his lyrics, to the marriage of folk, blues, pop, and atmospheric bacground music – that there really is something for everyone in every earnest tale.